Mold cores are widely utilized in the molding art to form hollow elements in molded components. For example, cores may be utilized in conjunction with molds to cast concrete pipes or buckets, hollow columns, or any molded components that require a conduit, passageway, or hollowed out aspect therein. For example, molded components that may utilize mold cores include tower base supports, such as staves or other supports or support components. Examples of such molded components may be disclosed in, for example, Zavitz et al. (U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0307998), Zavitz et al. (U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0308006), and Knox et al. (U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0308019).
Further, technology related to mold cores has advanced generally to the use of expandable and collapsible mold cores which facilitate withdrawal of the mold core from the molded component. Various different styles of expandable and collapsible mold cores are known in the art. Generally, such mold cores expand and collapse radially due to the application of radial expansion forces. For example, see St. John (U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,732), which discloses a selectively radially expandable core for casting concrete pipe. Another example of a mold core that expands radially due to the application of radial expansion forces is provided by Carr (U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,924). The following patents provide further examples of mold cores that are radially expandable due to the application of radial expansion forces. For example, Friedl et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,749), discloses a reusable hollow formwork element for producing concrete structures, such as concrete pipelines, which can be radially expanded through the inflation of element cavities. von Holdt (U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,766), discloses a radially collapsible mold core that permits molding of objects such as straight-walled buckets. Catalanotti et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,608), discloses a molding apparatus with a radially collapsible core. Koren (U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,154), discloses a mold and molding apparatus wherein, to remove the mold, a vacuum is applied to an inner area of the mold, causing a flexible inner mold to separate from the molding material and conform to an extraction member, permitting removal.
The subject matter of each of the above published patent related documents is fully incorporated herein by reference, and for all purposes.
While such expandable and collapsible mold cores generally permit the withdrawal of the mold cores from molded components, the radially expansive components of the cores may be difficult to utilize during the molding process. For example, many known mold cores include a large number of mechanical components which may be broken or damaged during expansion or during the molding process. Further, many of the radially expansive components of known mold cores may be difficult to access and actuate during and after the molding process, preventing or hindering the withdrawal of the mold cores from the molded components.
Thus, an expandable insert apparatus that facilitates withdrawal of the insert apparatus from a molded component would be desired in the art. For example, an expandable insert apparatus that does not require a large number of fragile mechanical components would be advantageous. Further, an expandable insert apparatus that includes easily accessible and usable expansion components would be desirable.